Freely subscribe to our NEWSLETTER

Due to expansion, ODG has moved some departmental personnel to a new branch office, which required the company to seek an additional level of access control and visibility at the network edge. After evaluating enterprise switches from Cisco and ConSentry, ODG selected the ConSentry LANShield CS-4048 for its ability to provide the granularity of control and visibility required in a single platform.

According to Daryl Flack, head of IT Services, On Demand Group, “Our challenge was to source an easy to configure and manage switch that would provide a greater level of control and security on the corporate LAN. ConSentry’s intelligent switch impressed us with its simple configuration and intuitive approach to switching. This, aligned with its ability to provide visibility of user access, application activity, and traffic flows, made it the ideal product for our requirements.”

Flack continued, “On Demand Group is familiar with Cisco hardware and has its switches currently deployed at the core and edge of the main headquarters network. However, I felt that Consentry’s approach to edge switching provided more granular control and better visibility of the underlying traffic that was being sent across the LAN, and better suited our approach to departmental segregation going forward. “Our branch-office expansion seemed like the ideal situation to test Consentry’s additional features in a live environment, with a view to replacing our Cisco edge switches with Consentry. Unlike ConSentry’s single platform, Cisco switches would have required additional hardware purchases and training to provide the same level of functionality. They were also more complex to configure and deploy.”

Easily deployed and configured, the LANShield Switch authenticates users against standard identity stores and automatically learns their roles. For each traffic flow, the switch identifies the application in use, applies policies based on role, and fully tracks all activities. This level of granularity ensures ODG is constantly aware of all activity on the network and can manage that activity to an individual user level.

By delivering a comprehensive understanding of users, applications, files, and Internet activity, the ConSentry intelligent switches provide faster and easier incident response and troubleshooting. ODG is provided with a complete and consolidated view of who is doing what on the LAN, with username, role, application, and server all tied together. This tight integration enables granular control, down to file-based views of individual application use.

“As soon as we deployed the ConSentry LANShield, it proved its value by giving us the ability to troubleshoot a critical performance issue within the branch office network. By using ConSentry’s reporting functionality, we were immediately able to view and identify user actions that were causing drains on bandwidth and act accordingly,” said Flack.

ODG has now used ConSentry as the platform for simply and securely enabling Internet guest access and tracking user activity. Increasing demand for access from guests required ODG to provide an ADSL link and install a firewall as a simple security measure. Using the standard switching functionality of the LANShield Switch, ODG has set up a guest page using a simple web-based captive portal native to the ConSentry product family. Guest devices are screened prior to authentication then placed in a secure zone that prevents them from accessing corporate resources or intellectual property. ODG can now offer a network service to guests without any risk to its business.

ODG plans to roll out further ConSentry LANShield switches across the company to create a ConSentry-enabled edge-switching infrastructure. By using the role-based LAN segmentation capability, ODG will be able to separate business divisions on the network and secure the production and development environments, helping to achieve compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

“On Demand Group is a world leader in the media industry and sought an innovative solution to provide greater network visibility and control,” said Dean Hickman-Smith, vice president of worldwide sales at ConSentry. “By selecting ConSentry, On Demand Group has seen the benefits of the simplicity and efficiency of intelligent switching, all contained in a single, fully featured and cost-effective platform.”

About On Demand Group

On Demand Group (ODG) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of VOD and IPTV leader SeaChange International (Nasdaq: SEAC) specialising in the development and management of transactional television services. ODG provides its customers with end-to-end content solutions, combining content acquisition, service management, marketing programming, technology and operating expertise. ODG is the content management partner for the Virgin Media TV VOD service, the largest VOD service in the world outside of the US, having worked on the launch of VOD for NTL from January 2005.

In November 2006 ODG announced the launch of its wholly owned movie pay-per-view service - Select Kino which is available to subscribers of Kabel Deutschland’s (KDG), the largest cable network in Germany. In February 2007 ODG formed a joint venture with Tele München Gruppe to build pay-per-view and video-on-demand services in Germany and German speaking countries. In April 2007 On Demand Deutschland announced that it had taken over the management of the pay-per-view movie service for Unity Media, the second largest cable network in Germany. In February 2008 On Demand Deutschland agreed a deal to content manage Telekom Austria’s AON TV Video On Demand service.

ODG expects to announce its participation in further VOD services in new markets over the coming months where its unique blend of experience, skills and services can provide operators with speed to market benefits in the launching of PPV, VOD, SVOD and IPTV services.